Psalm 66 this evening Psalm 66 in verse 5 David said
come and see the works of God. That'll be our title tonight
and kind of the theme of our lesson. Verse 1 says, Make a
joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Always, as long as there's
been worship, there's been singing, playing of musical instruments.
It's always been an important part. There were those who dedicated
their entire lives in the Old Testament to one or the other
or both to make the worship of God a
time of praise and glorifying His name in song and by the playing
of instruments. But the main thing I want us
to notice, we've talked about that before and there's really
no excuse for not making the joyful noise unto
God. But I want us to notice particularly
in this verse tonight that it's unto God. It's unto God. We're not singing
to one another. We're not singing for entertainment. That's what I fear most singing
in worship is. It's entertainment time. No,
everything that's done in the worship of God is unto God. We meet in His name and we worship
Him. It's for His glory. And I wonder if we, if we really
had that in our hearts, that this is before God and it's unto
God. Everything we say, everything
we, our prayers are to Him, of course, but every song, you're
singing to God. We don't really think about that,
do we? I'm singing to God. I wonder how that would affect
what we sing and how we sing. I hope that
we sing things that are appropriate to sing to God because that's
what we do. And sing as though unto Him. And of course everything that
we do should be for His glory and should
be done with all of our heart. Verse two, sing forth the honor
of His name. Here's what to sing. We're singing
to Him. You know what God likes to hear
about? Him. Himself. That would be vanity
in me, wouldn't it? In Him, it's just right. Because
He's God. He's worthy of all praise. He
likes to hear us praise Him. likes to hear us sing of his
glory and his salvation, of his blood, of his mercy, of his power. His character. Sing forth the
honor of his name. You know, the name of God always
is not just the name Jehovah or the other names of God in
the scripture. That's his character, his attributes. God has made
a name for himself in the scriptures and in his mighty acts in his
world. And we sing of his attributes.
We sing of his works because that has to do with the honor
of his name. He is the subject of our song. And David said,
make it glorious. Make his praise glorious. I'm not sure how to do that.
I know it doesn't have a whole lot to do with natural talent. There's no specification here
about that. All ye lands, everybody, make
a noise unto God. And it should be a glorious noise. What does that mean? I don't
know, but I know this. The Lord hears the music of the heart
more than what comes out of your mouth. Now it's an exercise of
the mouth and of course the vocal cords but it's done with the
heart. That's what's beautiful. Unto
the Lord. What did he say about women? What they should wear? Have you
ever read that closely? You know what is a beautiful
adornment before the Lord? A quiet and humble spirit. Not so much the clothes you put
on. It's the spirit. And that's how it is when singing.
Make it glorious means make it heavy. That word is heavy. And I believe that means weighty. Make it have some substance to
it. Not this frivolous music of religion that talk about Jesus
and heaven and God and things like that but never really mention
who he is. The honor of his name. Let's
talk about who he is and what he's done. Not just say Jesus
and God. Yeah, that's what I think heavy
has to do with there. Let there be a dignity and a
reverence about it. And as I said, that would rule
out the fleshly, shallow noise that passes for worship often. I've been in that now. I know
what I'm talking about, repeating the same line over and over and
over and over. Kind of getting in some kind
of a trance and raising your hands. I don't believe that's
worship and praise. It's got to be weighty. It's
got to be glorious. There's got to be some heaviness
to it. Some dignity, some reverence. And it's got to have something
to do with his character. Just saying the word God, that
could be anybody. They call Muhammad God. That's
what they call him. Well, verse three, say unto God,
speak. We're communicating with God.
We don't think about that now, but that's what we're doing.
Say to him how terrible art thou in thy works. Through the greatness
of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. You're mighty, you're powerful,
and you're going to win. You always have. You always do. Your enemies are going to bow
at your feet because you're mighty. But it's a communication unto
God, just like in prayer. In fact, as we've seen, most
worshipful songs are prayers put to music, many of the psalms.
And in just about every one of them, there's some prayer in
it, isn't there? We'll see that in this one. Also, it should
include not only his character, as we saw in verse two, his name,
who he is but also what he's done. How terrible art thou in
works, in thy works. What has God done? Let's sing
about that. We saw last week, I think it
was, how the word terrible means awe-inspiring. His works inspire
reverence, do they not? The things that he's accomplished
for his people. In the last part of this verse,
give an example of the attributes, his name,
the attributes, the character of God. The greatness of that
power. That's one of his attributes,
isn't it? He's omnipotent, almighty, all-powerful. And so we're to sing about that.
That's a good thing to sing about. His mighty power is praiseworthy.
We should sing about the truth that none of his enemies can
ever prevail against him. As Job said, thou canst do anything
and no thought of thine can be hindered. Nobody can stop you.
Your enemies will not be able to thwart your purpose. Whatever our God sets about to
accomplish, it's done. Let's sing about that. That should
be included in our song. See, the singing is gospel singing. We sing what we preach. Him and
what he's done for sinners. And how powerful he is. He speaks
and it's done. He speaks and his enemies fall
over backwards. We don't believe in the God of
religion who tries to do things, but people won't let him do what
he wants to do. And so we don't sing about that
guy. We sing about the one that does as he pleases in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth. And none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? That's who we sing
about. Verse four, all the earth shall
worship you. Everybody's gonna worship you.
And they're gonna sing to you. They shall sing to thy name.
Now just a couple of thoughts here. That's our desire right
now, isn't it? That everybody would just sing his praises.
David said in Psalm 107, eight, oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. Everybody ought to be shouting
his praises. He's that good, he's that wonderful.
And for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfies
the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Everybody ought to be praising him for that. You may not partake of his goodness,
spiritually speaking, but that doesn't mean it's not, that he's
not good. That's on you now if you don't.
He says come and drink, come and eat. Why do you spend money
for that which is not bread? Come and eat and drink. Now we also know that this is
true in the sense that his people from all over the earth worship
his name. And that's usually what it means
when the whole earth is referred to in the scripture. You're not
talking about every single individual. There's nothing really true of
every single individual in this world, except that they're all
a mass of sin. Worthless, vile, wretched sinners that hate God by nature. But
when the whole earth is referred to, usually it means from every
corner. Didn't he say, hold not back,
north, south, east, and west. I'm going to call my children
from every corner, and they're going to sing his praises. We're
in one little corner of the earth here, and we just got through
singing. We may sing another one before it's over tonight.
I like to sing about him. And then we know this is true,
too. Every knee will bow. In some sense, he will be worshipped
by everybody in the earth, everybody in the whole world for all time.
He will be worshipped in a sense. Every knee will bow and acknowledge
that he's Lord. They're gonna say, you're Lord.
And Paul said in Philippians 2.11 that that's gonna glorify
God the Father when he does that. When everybody, they're gonna
confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father. Even
those who despise his name, God the Father's gonna be glorified.
in their submission. So verse five, come and see.
Here's the title tonight because this has to do with everything,
doesn't it? Come and see the works of God. He is terrible. He is awe-inspiring. He is demanding of reverence
in his doing toward the children of men. Let's don't talk about
some decision that you made or anything that you've done or
doing or ever will do or ought to do even. Let's don't even
talk about what we ought to do. Let's talk about God and what
he's done. And then if we see him, that's
what motivates us to do what we ought to do. There are some
things that we ought to do, but we don't talk about the law and
works and what we do and what we need to do and what We need
to quit and we talk about him. That's what motivates believers
to live for his glory. Seeing him, hearing of him, glorifying
him. Let's talk about, let's come
before God and behold his mighty works toward the children of
men. Look at what he's done, he made
us. It is he that has made us and not we ourselves. And that's
true and ever since not just created us from the dust but
he made us what we are. He made us me who I am right
now in this world. He created a world for us to
live in. We walk around and we use his
world and we enjoy it and rarely part our lips to give
thanks for what he's given. He made a covenant with himself
for us who are his sheep. Ordered in all things and sure,
David said, it's all my salvation and all my desire that God hath
made with me an everlasting covenant. These are the works of God. He
made you. He made this world you live in.
He made a covenant with himself for your sake. He included you
in it if you're his. He's taught us. He hadn't left
us without a word. Isn't that beautiful? We don't
even think about the things that we ought to be thanking him for
constantly. Not only are we not grateful for them, we don't even
acknowledge the reality of them. He gave us his word. He teaches
us. Paul said of Timothy, from your youth up, you've been taught
the Holy Scriptures that are able, by the way, to make you
wise unto salvation. Oh, we have to Praise him for
that. He's taught me to. He's preserved
us. There are a lot of what ifs in
this world aren't there? You know where they are? Right in
the hand of God. What if I had died before I had
heard his name? What if I had self-destructed
before I heard of his grace and his precious blood? That what
if was right here and it wasn't going to happen. It wasn't going
to happen. Preserved me. Prevenient grace. He sent his son. This is the. The center of it all. The epitome
of it all. He loved us and he sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. You can't talk about the
works of God without talking about. The mystery of godliness
that God was manifest in the flesh. that he came where I was
and took my place in righteousness, and as the sin atoning substitute, he was my lamb. You know what else God did? You
wanna see the works of God? He sent a preacher to me one
day, or sent me to the preacher, one of the two. He sent a preacher
somewhere, and there I was somehow, One day, and I still remember
the first message I ever really heard, that I believe the light
came on. Brother Jack Shanks preached,
are you thirsty? Let everyone that's thirsty come.
And I found myself to be thirsty that day, by God's grace. I believe
for the first time. I don't know. The Lord had been
dealing with me some before that. I don't know. But I know that I know that the water of life
is the only true drink. And I was thirsty that day, if
not before. And I'm thirsty right now to
hear of his grace. As the heart pants after the
water brook, so my soul thirsteth after the living God, David said.
I understand that a little bit. I wish I wasn't so insensitive
because of my sin. But I do thirst for him. So he
sent a preacher to me. That's not all, not just a preacher,
but he sent his Holy Spirit to me that day too. I know his Holy
Spirit had something to do with that or I would have just sat
there dead. And he quickened me by his precious
spirit and created life within us. That's who gets thirsty,
living creatures. I had a thirst because I had
life. I had life because God the Holy Spirit came where I
was and birthed me from above. And I know this, it's of God
that we're in Christ Jesus. There's a work of God that I'll
never be able to thank him enough for. He put me in his son. He
put his son in me and me in his son. He blesses me every day. Where would you begin and end
with talking about the wonderful works of God toward the children
of men, toward the likes of us? He blesses us every day. He guides
my every step. How many times? Where would I
be tonight, for example? Just on this night, out of all
my history and future, on this night, where would I be right
now without His grace? guides us and upholds us and
keeps us every hour kept by his power unto salvation. Ready to be revealed at the last
time. If we got specific about all that he's done for us, it'd
take a thousand lifetimes to recount all of it. In thinking about his earthly
Israel, David said this about what his mighty works. He turned
the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on
foot. And it says they didn't even get mud on their sandals.
And there, there did we rejoice in Him. Where? On the banks of the Red Sea,
with all of our enemies washing up on the shore. That's a good
place to rejoice in Christ right there. He said, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And they did. They did, and what
a salvation. In spiritual terms, of course,
this is talking about how he saves his people with a mighty
arm. He destroyed the greatest nation
in the world at that time. You think about the spiritual
equivalent of this. He delivered his people from bondage and said
to them, stand still, just stand there and watch me save you.
He's still saying that to sinners. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever seen that? Have you ever just stood there and watched
God save you? If you've heard the gospel and you had eyes to
see, you have. David's saying, then sing about
it, sing about it. He said we rejoiced in him there
on the other side of the red sea. They sang a song didn't
they? We have it recorded. A beautiful song of his glory
and his power and his mercy. Have you ever sat on the banks
of your own Red Sea and thought about how it was the blood of
the Passover lamb that brought you out of bondage? That's where
it started. You're sitting there at the Red
Sea now but where did it start? After everything else had failed,
everything else had failed by God's design to show us that
nothing, nothing can redeem our souls, nothing can bring us out
of the bondage of the law into the glorious liberty of Christ,
except the precious blood. All of the other plagues failed,
but when the blood was shed, he said, you're going, you're
going out free. The first step that they stepped
on free ground was when the blood was shed. And now, every step
after that is because of that. Because the Passover lamb was
delivered for us, for our sins. Our enemies still, they still
wanted us. They still wanted the Israelites,
didn't they? They still were coming after them, but they're
not gonna catch them, because the blood's been shed. We're untouchable. And it all started with the shedding
of that precious blood of the spotless lamb. And we've never been back to
Egypt since, not since that blood was shed. Never been back yet. Not going back. Verse seven,
he ruleth by his power forever. There are a lot of ways to lead.
People say you can lead by example. You can lead through fear. Create
an environment of fear. There's gonna be consequences
now if you don't do what I say. You know how God leads? By his authority and his ability. He can't be thwarted. He can't
be stopped. He can't be denied. He can't be opposed. He ruleth
by his power. His eyes behold the nations.
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Don't be so foolish
as to do that. The one that rules by his almighty
power and who doesn't miss a thing is on the throne. So how foolish
would it be to rebel, to exalt yourself, to say I will like
Satan did and like Peter did and like all of us have. He's all powerful and nothing
escapes him and you've been warned. Don't let the rebellious, that's
all of us, isn't it? We all have a rebel heart in
us now. And we've been warned here, don't let it be lifted
up in pride. Don't exalt yourself now. Everyone
that's exalted will be abased. And if by God's grace we're able
to abase ourselves, to take our place at his feet, you know what
the scripture says? He'll lift us up. All we like sheep have gone astray
and gone every one our own way. Our rebellious, proud hearts.
Psalm 2 comes to mind whenever I think of, really this whole
verse, he ruleth by his power, God hath set his king on his
holy hill, and men rebel. Let's cast his cords from us. We don't want his control over
us. And I'll tell you this, that
psalm ends this way. And he asked this question, why
did the heathen rage? What do you think you're going
to accomplish by exalting yourself against God? You really want
to fight God? You want to oppose God? You want
to find yourself on the wrong side of God Almighty? It says this, serve the Lord
with fear. The one that's on the throne,
the king that God had set on his holy hill, serve him with
fear and rejoice with trembling and kiss the son, lest he be
angry. Verse eight, oh. I like that
word. Oh. Have you ever, sometimes
that's the only word that you can say in it, just oh. Oh. I've had a few moments like that
in my life, just in temporal things, where what are you gonna
say but just oh. And here's what David's talking
about. Oh, bless our God. Look at him all mighty. Bless
our God you people and make the voice of his praise to be heard.
There's always been a call to make known the glories of our
God and Savior. Didn't Paul say in Romans chapter
nine that that's why God did it. Yes why he deals the way
he does with the reprobate and the vessels of mercy to make
known the riches of his grace. He raised up Pharaoh and then
dropped him in hell to do what? Make his power known. And what's
our business in this world? Go and make it known who I am
and what I did. That's what our business is now. God has always been a call to
his people and he's doing it too, of course, himself, and
he's doing it through us. We're not to hole up in a convent
somewhere and praise the Lord behind walls of concealment of
some kind. He said you don't light a candle
and then put a bushel on top of it. You light it and you set
it on a candlestick and put it on the table so everybody can
see. That's what he's talking about
here. Make it known that God is awesome and glorious and all
powerful and merciful. Verse nine, which holdeth our
soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved. That's positive and negative,
isn't it? He holdeth, that's a positive. He holdeth, and here's
the negative. He's not gonna allow anybody
to move us or anything. I can't even move myself, and
I would if I could, wouldn't you? I'd give up and quit a thousand
times a day But I can't do it. Because He's
got me. He's holding my soul in life. He's our life and our protection. He that hath the Son hath life.
And He holds us there. We're in His hand. Think about what David said here.
The fact that I live physically, spiritually, eternally, the quality
of my life, everything pertaining to life as it pertains to me
is a positive exertion of power on Christ's part. He holdeth
my soul in life. And if he doesn't, if he lets
go, I'm gone. And nobody can do anything about
it. He has said unto me, live, and nobody can say anything different. Verse 10, thou, O God, hast proved
us, thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. I was gonna have us
turn to 1 Peter 1 and read a passage there, but you remember pretty
much what it says there. The trial of your faith is precious.
God always, if he gives faith, he'll try it. If you do believe
and know who God is and you're able to sing his praises with
some understanding, then that faith will be tried. But as everybody knows, when
gold is tried, it just comes out more gold. Silver is purged
and put through the fire. It just comes out purer. Verse 11, thou broughtest us
into the net, thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Now look, people
quit talking about mother nature and Satan doing this and that.
Satan and others may be instrumental in our troubles and afflictions,
as with Job, but nobody goes into the net without God. Are
you in the net? Are you out of the net? It was
God that put you in there, and he's the one that got you out.
Who put Jonah in the belly of the whale? Satan, who got him
out? Who did he praise when he got
out? Who did he cry to when he was in there? Think about this. The Sabeans
and the Chaldeans killed all of Job's servants and stole all
of his stuff. And you know what he said? The
Lord gave and today the Lord took it away. That's what we're talking about
now. There are secondary causes. There are instruments that God
uses. But we got to give God the glory
in everything. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He's blessed, forgiven, and he's blessed when he takes it away.
If I'm in the net, blessed be his name. If he delivers me out
of the net, guess what I'm fixing to do? Verse 12, thou has caused men
to ride over our heads. I don't know exactly what that
means, but you know what the picture I get there? We've fallen
in battle and they're just riding right over the top of us. We're
in the mud and our enemies are just tromping right over the
top of us. That's the picture I get there.
There again, you see those key words there? Thou hast caused. We went through fire and through
water. But thou broughtest us out into
a wealthy place. The bad and the good, it's the
Lord. The giving and the taking, it's the Lord. And his name is
to be blessed. We ought to think about those
three words every time we go through something. Thou hast
caused. It wasn't in spite of God. It's
not the epic struggle between good and evil. There is no struggle.
God does as he places. And he's to be glorified in trials
and in troubles when our enemy is riding over our heads. The
Lord promised he wouldn't leave me there. So I'm gonna hope in
him. Thou hast caused it. Men did
some evil things now. It was evil when they did it,
when the Sabaeans and the Chaldeans killed Job's servants and took
his oxen and sheep and everything. That was wicked, that was vile,
that was evil. But we're going to have to glorify
God in it. God uses even evil for His glory. I've had people balk at that.
Oh no, God would never use sin. Really, what happened at Calvary?
Was that some kind of something that God didn't see coming? And
He just had to make the best of it? No. Pilate and all of
the chief priests and scribes, they did whatever God's hand
and counsel determined before to be done. Verse 13, I'll go into your house. Won't we? Will we or not? Let's
go into his house. You know, when our enemies are riding over our
heads, let's go into his house. When Job was in the belly of
the whale, he was crying to God, wasn't he? And then, when the Lord lifts
us up out of the mud, and puts us in a wealthy place, we kinda
skipped over that, didn't we? Where are you now? In a wealthy
place. Let's go into his house then,
too, and worship him then. I'm gonna come with burnt offerings
now. I'm not coming without a sacrifice. Well, we don't do that now, Chris.
Well, not the same as they did then, we don't. We're doing the
same thing, aren't we? We come in by faith. in the lamb. Didn't Paul say in Romans chapter
3, I believe it is, through faith in his blood. They came with
the actual blood, but they came through faith in his blood. And
so do we. We don't offer physical offerings
unto God because Christ has fulfilled all of that. But we come the
same way in that we come by faith. How was it that Abel offered
the more excellent sacrifice? By faith. And we come also pleading
that same precious blood that Abel did, the blood of the Lamb
that takes away sin. All of our worship. We listen
to it now which I will pay the vows which my lips have uttered
and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble I will offer
under the burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of
Rams I will offer bullets with goats I'm not coming before God
without a sacrifice without a lamb without an offering without blood
we still don't. Not physical blood now. But here's
the thing, all of our worship, all of our service, all of our
prayer is done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with
the understanding that everything we do and think and feel and
all that we are is accepted by God by virtue of his satisfactory
atonement. I don't come before God in myself
without an offering. David wouldn't, and I won't either. But we're coming though. You
see that? We're not gonna come without
coming in his name now. And by virtue of his atonement,
his holiness, we come in him and in his name for his glory
and honor. But we are coming. We got to
come. And then David says to everybody
else, he said, I'm gonna go into his house, and then he says this
to everybody else, you come too. You come too, come in here, verse
16. All ye that fear God, and I'll
tell you, I got something to say to you. You know what I'm
gonna talk about? Isn't this just appropriate to
what's going on tonight? Come in here, all ye that fear
God, do you have any reverence whatsoever? In other words, do
you care that God has spoken? Do you care that he has a recorded
word that he's given to people to read and to understand and
to acknowledge and to glorify him in? Does that matter to you
at all? Do you have any fear of God at
all? Then come and hear and I'm going to tell you what he did
for my soul. Now, think about that. He said, I'm going to declare
the mighty works of God. And now here he's saying, I'm
gonna tell you what he did for me. You know what that is? The
same thing. Everything he did, he did for
me. And I can't tell you about it unless he did it for me. Do
you see that here? I can talk about his mighty works,
but it's just a sham unless he did them, unless I've experienced
them. You can't tell anybody about
somebody you don't know. You can't tell something that
happened unless it happened to you, can you? Otherwise it's
just hearsay, it's just passing along a story. That's not what
the gospel is. We got to tell what he's done
for us. This is what he's instructed us to do. When our Lord Jesus
came into the ship, Mark 5, 18, he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. I understand
that, don't you? If I had been just a little while
before roaming around in the graveyard cutting myself and
crying out and unable to rest and the Lord spoke to me and
I sat down and clothed in my right mind at peace. I think I probably would have
said the same thing, I'm coming with you, but the Lord said no,
no, not right now. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not,
but saith unto him, go home to your friends, and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. That's what David said I'm gonna
do, I'm just gonna tell you what God did for me. the great things
that the Lord has done. He did them for a sinner like
me. All the things we talked about
a while ago, in eternity and time, past, present, and future,
He did it for me. We can't quite get over that,
can we? And that old man that had been
possessed with the devil. You notice how he's identified
here? We don't know his name. He's just the man that used to
be a horrible, horrible wretch. But now he's the one whom the
Lord has done great things for and had compassion on. He departed and began to publish
in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all
men did marvel. You can't tell the gospel unless
you've experienced it. Otherwise, you're just pretending
now. God loved my soul. From the beginning, he chose
me. What has he done for me? He set his affection upon me
before the foundation of the world. And all that he has done
for my soul since, and there is no sense really because it
was an eternal love, but everything else he's done for me is an outpouring
of that everlasting love that he had for my soul. When he was
on the cross, you remember in the Psalms it says he cried this,
no man cared for my soul. I can't say that. He's cared for my soul always. He redeemed my soul with his
precious blood. Oh, can you declare what he's
done for your soul? Not so much, and I don't want
to take lightly temporal blessings. I enjoy many, many of them, and
I'm grateful for them. But what has he done for your
soul? He redeemed my soul with his
precious blood. Psalm 34, 22, the Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants. He spoke to my soul. David said
in Psalm 19, seven, the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure. Making wise and simple. He sent
his word to my soul. He quickened my soul. Gave me life. David said in Psalm
23, three, he restores my soul. What has he done for your soul?
Anything that you might wanna sing about sometime? He keeps
my soul. Psalm 2520, oh keep my soul and
deliver me, let me not be ashamed. For I put my trust in you. Keep
my soul. If my soul's gonna be kept, he's
gonna have to do it. Because all my trust is in him.
He has kept my soul. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've delivered unto him against that day. What
have you delivered unto him? My soul, everything, all that
I am. He satisfies my soul. I quoted
this verse while ago, Psalm 42, one is the heart, the little
deer panteth after the water brook. So panteth my soul after
the old guy. Are you thirsty? I'll tell you what will happen
if you are. He said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness. Because I'll fill them. I'll
give them what they're thirsty for. In Psalm 63, 5, David said,
my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. And
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. God's going to give
me what I need. And I'm going to glorify him
when he does. Anybody? The last four verses give sort
of a general example of what the Lord has done for my soul
and it's a it's a good one now I don't want to skip over it
lightly but I want to kind of look at them together. This is
the beginning of the experience for me now. Realize this now
the Lord has been doing things for my soul since before. Before I existed. Before the
foundation of the world he was doing things for my soul. I know
now before I was ever born. He was doing things for my soul.
But here's how it started in my experience. Here's what David
said in his life. I cried out to him and he heard
me. And he had mercy on me. That's how I experienced all
of the wonderful things he's done for my soul in eternity
and in time before I even knew him. And now since I've known
him, all of the blessings that I've enjoyed in Christ. and all spiritual blessings that
are laid up for me in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that I'm
gonna really enjoy as I can experience them without sin when I see him
as he is and when I know even as I'm known I'll enjoy every
spiritual blessing that there is in Christ because by his grace he caused
me to cry and when I cried he heard me And he had mercy on
me. Here's the lesson now tonight.
Whatever your condition, whatever your status right now, whatever
your need, however hopeless and vile you are, cry out to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He'll hear you. Do you have a
need at all? Do you need anything? Are you
doing fine on your own? However hopeless you are or think
you might be, and however wretched, however wicked. He said, well,
I've already cried out to him. Are you done then? Have you quit
being wretched? Oh, let's cry out to him. An
old leper cried out to him once. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. You can make a leper. You can
cure the incurable if you want to. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I want to. I want to. An old blind man cried
out to him one time, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And everybody told him to shut up. And you know what he did?
He cried louder. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And the son of God stopped in
his tracks and said, bring that man to me. I've got some business
with him. An old woman once cried to the
Lord. And you know, David praised God here in these last verses
for not turning away his prayer. And you might say that this woman
who cried unto our Lord, the Lord did turn away her prayer. For a while, she cried to him. He didn't answer her a word.
And she kept crying and he said, it wouldn't be right for me to
have mercy on a dog like you. And she said, boy, that's the
truth, Lord. But she took her place at the feet of the master
as a dog begging for a crumb. She asked for a crumb and the
Lord gave her the kingdom of heaven. Crying to the Lord. He hears sinners and has mercy
on them. I've experienced that. He did
that for my soul. And he had never turned one away
yet that cried to him for mercy. Let's pray.